Paris is seeking to deport Algerian nationals it deems a threat, but Algiers won’t take them back.
PARIS — French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau vowed a “gradual response” after Algeria refused Paris’ demand to readmit Algerian nationals from France that local authorities have deemed a threat and are seeking to expel.
Retailleau’s threat comes after the French government last week sent a list to Algiers of Algerian nationals it is seeking to deport after a deadly knife attack that was purportedly carried out by an Algerian citizen. The suspect had reportedly been expelled 14 times but remained in France due to Algeria’s refusal to allow reentry.
French Prime Minister François Bayrou last week warned that if Algeria, which won independence in 1962 after a brutal war and more than a century of French occupation, refused to take the individuals back, France would consider withdrawing from a 1968 agreement that facilitates Algerian immigration to France. According to French daily Le Parisien, the list includes 60 or so Algerians.
Algeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded on Monday with a statement accusing France of acting in violation of the current diplomatic agreements between the two countries. The ministry said it would thus effectively ignore the request from Paris.
While Franco-Algerian relations have been strained for months, the current diplomatic spat is seen as a test of the government’s ability to act on immigration. Only about 10 percent of expulsion orders issued by French authorities result in actual departures, as they are often held up due to diplomatic tensions with various host countries.
A hard-line conservative, Retailleau has made the expulsion issue central both as interior minister and in his bid to lead Les Républicains, which is a junior partner in the current center-right coalition. Retailleau has warned his participation in the coalition depends on his ability to act. “If I were asked to abandon this major issue for the security of the French people, I would of course refuse,” he told Le Parisien over the weekend, raising questions about a possible resignation.
French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this month warned his ministers to tone down the rhetoric in what seemed to be a rebuke of both Retailleau and Bayrou.
Retailleau’s allies insist that the plan for a “gradual response” is supported by Macron and Bayrou.
“On this subject, he is in agreement with the president and the prime minister,” an elected official close to Retailleau, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, told POLITICO.
